This week, we’re getting a sneak peek at 144 films at the Forest City Film Festival, partying on a 151-year-old bridge with the Blackfriars Bridge Bash, and discovering a new downtown shop - Whim and Wonder, that is much more than a store.
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The Loon Recommends for Sept. 3-9, 2026
Forest City Film Festival Launch Party - September 3
Blackfriars Bash - September 6
Spotlight on Whim and Wonder - Another Reason to go Downtown
Get a First Look at This Year’s Forest City Film Festival
Thursday, September 3 | Museum London | 5:00 - 8:00 PM | FREE
Calling all film lovers! The Forest City Film Festival’s Launch Party takes over Museum London’s Centre at the Forks on Thursday evening, giving movie fans the first look at the festival’s full 2026 lineup. So far 15 films have been announced - this year I’m already looking forward to:
Run Terry Run - a documentary about Terry Fox.
Fatherland - a feature about writer Thomas Mann going on a road trip in Cold War Germany with his daughter (played by the wonderful actress Sandra Hüller of Anatomy of a Fall).
Code of Misconduct - a documentary about the sexual assault scandal with the London Knights.
But this year’s fest will feature 144 films! By far the biggest year for the festival. I’m really looking forward to hearing what else will be playing.
The evening kicks off with a reception where you can mingle with filmmakers and fellow cinephiles, followed by the big program reveal at 6 p.m., including a few special announcements. And like most of our Loon recommendations, the event is FREE to attend!
It’s also the final day to take advantage of the festival’s early-bird ticket pricing, so if you’re already wondering what you’ll be watching when FCFF rolls around (October 15 - 25), this is a pretty good place to start planning.
Also, earlier this week, I sat in on Matt Brown’s podcast where he interviewed the Forest City Film Festival’s Executive Director Ethan Hickey, and we learned more about this year’s fest and offerings.
One Historic Bridge. One Big Bash.
Sunday, September 6 | Blackfriars Bridge, Blackfriars Street | 11:30 AM - 3:00 PM | FREE
The Blackfriars Bridge Bash returns this Sunday, turning the historic bridge into a one-day neighbourhood festival. Built in 1875, Blackfriars Bridge is one of London’s true architectural treasures, and for one afternoon it will be closed to traffic and filled instead with live music, local artists (some sketching en plein air), food and plenty of community spirit, courtesy of the Blackfriars Neighbourhood Association.
The neighbourhood has something extra to celebrate this year, too - new play equipment, a seating area and sand pit at the park located at the foot of the bridge.
The celebration has taken place for the past few years, getting a little bigger and better each time. I’ve been to several myself, and it’s always a lot of fun.
I also particularly like this part of town. It’s a great place for a walk along the Thames and a chance to explore one of the city’s oldest and loveliest neighbourhoods.
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A Little Whim, a Little Wonder and a Lot of Really Good Pens
Inside Whim and Wonder, downtown London’s new home for Japanese stationery, collectibles and everyday delights
There are stores you walk into knowing exactly what you need, like going to a drugstore to pick up a prescription.
Then there are other places you visit just because it’s fun to browse their shelves and they always have something new and exciting to check out—places where there is a real joy of discovery. You might find something you’ve always wanted, or can’t say no to, or are just charmed and enchanted by. Whim and Wonder is this type of place.
At Whim and Wonder, you might go in looking for a nice pen, but leave with a capybara blind-box collectible. Or some beautiful Japanese paper and notebook. Or a funky eraser, or a Miffy stuffed animal that you had absolutely no intention of buying five minutes earlier. And really, that’s kind of the point.
Whim and Wonder opened this past July at 226 Dundas St. (beside the TD Bank near Clarence St.), bringing Japanese stationery, collectibles, a gachapon machine, local art and a healthy dose of fun to downtown London.
What is a gachapon? A gachapon is a Japanese vending machine that dispenses capsule toys. They are similar to the gumball machines many of us grew up with, but with considerably more interesting prizes inside them.
Whim and Wonder is the only place you’ll find a gachapon machine in Southwestarn Ontario outside of Toronto or Japan (where they are very common).
Owner Alex Rupert describes the things she sells at her store as “everyday delights,” small, affordable things that can make an ordinary day a little more enjoyable.
“I think there is an inherent value in enjoying something small in your life,” she says.
“You can pick up a pen and it’s nice and cute and brings a smile to your face. It’s an everyday delight. Not everything has to be grand.”
Yes, People Really Love Pens
Rupert has long been interested in stationery, collecting, and Japanese culture, but finding the things she liked often meant heading out of town.
“I started the business here because I was always having to go to Toronto to get the stuff that I wanted,” she told the London Free Press shortly after the store opened.
So she decided to bring some of those things to London.
Whim and Wonder carries Japanese pens, pencils and markers for everyone from casual doodlers to artists and serious stationery enthusiasts. The store is also the official Southwestern Ontario reseller for Toronto’s Japanese Paper Place, giving Londoners access to authentic Japanese papers including washi and chiyogami.
Some items of note here…
#1) ART SUPPLIES - London used to have a few art supply stores in town. Now we only have Bijians (which is amazing, but I’m not always able to get to), and Michaels. I go to Michaels in times of desperation if I really need a certain item on a Sunday, but lately they have less and less “artist” materials, and more and more craft materials.
I went to Michaels recently for black India ink and they told me it was too “niche” a product and had to be ordered online! They are also a large American chain. So - I am happy to frequent another store for quality items (though I’ll need to stick to Bijians for India ink).
#2) SPECIALTY PAPER and NOTEBOOKS - There is nowhere in town to find Japanese washi paper. Japanese washi paper is a traditional handmade paper crafted from the inner fibers of bark. It’s celebrated for its strength, flexibility, and soft texture. For our wedding invitations, I got the paper from The Japanese Paper Place. I know of a few people in London who make trips to Toronto to go there, but now you can go to Whim and Wonder and even put in special orders! Same with beautiful specialty notebooks.
And if you’re wondering what flies off the shelves most often, it isn’t an elaborate collector’s item. It’s pens.
Rupert says they’re easily the store’s biggest seller. It turns out it’s remarkably difficult to enter a store filled with really nice pens and not decide you suddenly require another one.
Running a close second are “blind boxes”. These are sealed packages containing one mystery collectible from a larger series. You don’t know which one you’ve bought until you open it, which is either delightful or a highly effective way of convincing yourself you need just one more.
More Than a Store - it’s a Third Space
Rupert came to London from Barrie to attend Western and stayed. Entrepreneurship wasn’t entirely unfamiliar territory: she grew up working in her family’s restaurant supply business and later worked in retail before moving into London’s tech sector.
When the idea for Whim and Wonder began taking shape, she didn’t just want to open a shop. She wanted to create somewhere people could spend time downtown.
At the back of the store is a beautifully decorated event and lounge space with plenty of seating and a big-screen TV. She’s used it to host a retro games night, and the store hosts a bi-weekly swap event, where you can bring in any duplicate figurines/gachas to swap with others.
But you don’t need to attend an event to use it. Have some time to kill downtown? Bring your laptop, meet a friend, journal, draw or simply hang out for a while.
Rupert sees the space as a quiet respite downtown — one of those increasingly rare “third spaces” that isn’t home or work. A place to hang out, where you can just be.
And, at least for now, it doesn’t cost anything.
This comfy space is completely free to use whenever the store is open, and Rupert is also making it available at no charge for meet-ups, special events and fundraisers. All you have to do is ask.
“I can fund the event space with the retail sales,” she says.
It’s an unusual approach, but one that fits with Rupert’s larger reason for opening Whim and Wonder. She wants to give people another reason not just to shop downtown, but to spend time there.
That community piece is important to her. So is the location.
Betting on Downtown
Rupert is refreshingly enthusiastic about downtown London. In fact, she sees Whim and Wonder as part of a particularly fun little stretch of Dundas Street that she calls a “nerdy zone.”
Within a couple of blocks you can browse comics and collectibles at Heroes, records and CDs at Grooves, used books at Attic Books and wonderfully odd things at Uber Cool Stuff. There’s also Mana Lounge, Studio Coffee and the Central London Public Library across the street.
For Rupert, this is a feature, not competition. Her partner Adam (in life, not in the business) is equally enthusiastic about downtown.
“There are events constantly at Dundas Place, the Covent Garden Market, Victoria Park and more that bring people to the core,” both say. “There’s stuff to do. You can’t just sit at home and complain.”
That attitude was part of the reason why she chose downtown in the first place.
“I wanted to open up to inject more positivity to the core and to give people another reason to go downtown.”
It’s a modest idea with bigger reverberations: one person opens a shop. Someone else opens a café. Another person runs an event. People come downtown to check one of these things out, and happen on to other things while they’re there.
One business isn’t going to transform downtown London by itself, and Rupert knows this. But a collection of interesting, independent places can certainly give people more reasons to show up.
And Whim and Wonder gives us one more. Even if we only went in for a pen.
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